Benzema linked? Do we need him?

[edson]

Players going in jan, Dos Santos,Keane,Bentley,looks like Harry will sell Kranjcar for a huge profit and that's a shame.Players who we could get Parker,Lee of Bolton,Samba of Blackburn a monster of a man who has the consistency in his game we need every week.Forlan would be a good buy at 29 he has the experience and work rate to do well for us.Sorry to upset Pav fans but Harry must sell him in the summer.

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

Quick over 2 yards, so he burns out after his first stride then? :lol:

Nah, it's just by then bigger players get up to speed. His game is about acceleration, not pace.

 

[louisg]

It was always one of Jol's big criticisms of Defoe.

I think it's also a key reason why he simply gets dominated by good defenders and never troubles the top sides (he just bullies the poor ones).

Defoe is deceptively slow too. He has good acceleration over 2 yards, but rarely wins chases. As such a particularly high proportion of his goals seem to come when he's not goal side of the defence.

Dan do you think Defoe is as quick as Mick Quinn was over two yards?

 

[brett.spurs]

Nah, it's just by then bigger players get up to speed. His game is about acceleration, not pace.

Yes, but 2 yards? I'd say he has good acceleration over 10 yards and decent pace. Obviously he's not Aaron Lennon but compared to our other strikers he may aswell be.

 

[Mr Pink]

It was always one of Jol's big criticisms of Defoe.

I think it's also a key reason why he simply gets dominated by good defenders and never troubles the top sides (he just bullies the poor ones).

Defoe is deceptively slow too. He has good acceleration over 2 yards, but rarely wins chases. As such a particularly high proportion of his goals seem to come when he's not goal side of the defence.

Generally speaking we have created less chances against the better sides in recent years, so it has as much to do with good service.

If anything Defoe could do with improving his finishing, its not always required to break the net...a little placement here and there would probably see his goal stats rocket. I think he does engineer chances well through good movement and anticipation.

His goals against Wigan were a classic example of clinical finishing - of the highest order.

Personally I love the little fella and he's constantly improving his upper body strength which is helping his all round game - he has the pace though and is getting his head up more these days to pick a pass if its on.

 

[danielneeds]

I actually don't think his resale value would go up that much because we are going to have to pay a boatload to get him. It might go up a bit and more than likely the good thing for Levy is he is young so his value won't dip like older players value has (keane comes to mind).

Nah, we would have to pay £20m for him. If he scores 20 goals two years running, how much would Chelsea, Citeh or Real pay for a 20 year old with Didier Drogba's qualities? £50m? £60m?

 

[richardyoon]

How about bringing Julio Baptista? he's been doing soooo well at AS Roma.... he's played like a dozen minutes this season

 

[onthetwo]

Defoe won a great header (the first of his career?), but tbh he barely touched the ball after that. He has no movement and his pace is only really over 2 yards. Defoe is definitely part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Respectfully, id point you to the recent England match where he played off Rooney and scored a hatrick....then tell me you didnt see any movement from him.

 

[brasil_spur]

Players going in jan, Dos Santos,Keane,Bentley,looks like Harry will sell Kranjcar for a huge profit and that's a shame.Players who we could get Parker,Lee of Bolton,Samba of Blackburn a monster of a man who has the consistency in his game we need every week.Forlan would be a good buy at 29 he has the experience and work rate to do well for us.Sorry to upset Pav fans but Harry must sell him in the summer.

I agree with most of this.

Players out Jan
Dos Santos - £5m
Keane - £7m
Kranjcar - £8m
Bentley - LOAN

Gives us £20m to spend on a striker and another CM.

 

[mil1lion]

I'm not sure we'll shift that many players in January. We still need a big squad. I wouldn't expect Kranjcar, Bentley and Gio all to be sold. 2 of those at most, but 1 more winger coming in, otherwise we'll be short of wide players. If we dont go for Parker I expect Harry to stick with O'Hara and give him a chance in the 2nd half of the season.

I predict:
out -Giovani, Bentley, Keane
in - Young, Carroll

I think he'll go for something like that. 2 English players already playing in the Premier League, and 3 players sold at most.

 

[AngerManagement]

I agree with most of this.

Players out Jan
Dos Santos - £5m
Keane - £7m
Kranjcar - £8m
Bentley - LOAN

Gives us £20m to spend on a striker and another CM.

I think we will sell Bentley to Fulham no loan, probably take a huge loss (at most get £7-9m back I assume)

I'd also be suprised if we could get more than £5m for Keane now or £3m for GDS (depends how impressed SPanish/Italian clubs were with his world cup)

Niko should command a decent fee, it will be a shame to lose him but Bale has just blown him out the water and with Modric and VDV to also fit into the starting line up it's very hard to see where he could fit in beyond a great back up option (which clearly he has had enough of)

O'Hara could well be sold too, especially if Harry wants and is successful in signing Parker, I would imagine we would get around £5m for him too.

I think we only NEED a top draw striker, we have quality and cover everywhere else (although different options could be brought in still of course) but I am not conviced our back line is as bad as people make out.

Gomes is a confidence player and his has taken a bit of a knock but stability is the key BAE is fine at left back I feel, Hutton and COrluka are each good enough to say I think spending money there would be a waste and we have ample talented CB's...we just need to get the same 4 playing week in week out and becoming a unit.

Striking options are our key area for improvement, Keane should be sold possibly Pav too (if not now then in the summer anyway) and we need to find someone of real quality to play upfront with Defoe in a 4-4-2 or lone infront of VDV. Benzema fits the bill, but I don't know how viable an option he is. Either way I am sure the powers that be realise we need someone here and they will do their upmost to address this.

Our wins over Inter and Arsenal in recent times have raised our profile though, my cousin from Rome says people over there are now talking about us (when only 2 years ago they bearly knew us) so if we can go on a good run of form from now til Jan maybe this will increase our chances of a top player coming to us (especially if we are in touching distance of the top)

 

[mill]

I'm not sure we'll shift that many players in January. We still need a big squad. I wouldn't expect Kranjcar, Bentley and Gio all to be sold. 2 of those at most, but 1 more winger coming in, otherwise we'll be short of wide players. If we dont go for Parker I expect Harry to stick with O'Hara and give him a chance in the 2nd half of the season.

I predict:
out -Giovani, Bentley, Keane
in - Young, Carroll

I think he'll go for something like that. 2 English players already playing in the Premier League, and 3 players sold at most.

Agree with this, this seems the most likely the best quality we'll be able to get in jan. I think we need a sub LB as well

 

[brett.spurs]

I agree with most of this.

Players out Jan
Dos Santos - £5m
Keane - £7m
Kranjcar - £8m
Bentley - LOAN

Gives us £20m to spend on a striker and another CM.

A striker will do, no need for another CM, we have 5 already with Palacios and Sandro struggling to even get on the pitch.

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

I agree with most of this.

Players out Jan
Dos Santos - £5mKeane - £7m
Kranjcar - £8m
Bentley - LOAN
Gives us £20m to spend on a striker and another CM.

I can't see us selling all 3 of those.

As we are seemingly in the process of switching to a 4-2-3-1, we'd be selling all our cover for the 3 AMs (Bale, VdV and Lennon).

I don't think Gio will go, at least until the summer, as he's too young to count towards our squad of 25.

I don't think Kranjcar will go either. He just needs a good talking to about losing some weight and getting himself in shape to be in contention.



My January predicition is that O'Hara, Bentley and Keane will go and we might get Benzema in on loan.

My January dream is that we do a £30-35m double deal for either Benzema-Diarra or Llorente-Javi Martinez.

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

A striker will do, no need for another CM, we have 5 already with Palacios and Sandro struggling to even get on the pitch.

That'll be less of an issue when we finish converting to 4-5-1.

Personally I'd be looking to effectively swap Jenas and O'Hara for Diarra, leaving us with:

For the 2 deeper lying roles - Modric, Huddlestone, Diarra, Palacios, Sandro

For the 3 AMs - VdV, Bale, Lennon, Modric, Krancjar, Gio

10 senior players (including 2 U21s) for 5 positions is perfect to me.

 

[brett.spurs]

Nice finish, damn him.

 

[Mr Pink]

You could offer Bentley in a deal for Hangeland.

With Dawson and even King not to far away and the positive news on Woodgate possibly returning into the new year (fingers crossed) and the signs of Kaboul and Gallas starting to look good why would we need Hangeland...oh yeah and there is Basong as well, not to mention the South African dude...

If Bentley were sold it will be for straight cash to help us improve in areas we really need to improve in at the momenet.

 

[sim0n]

nein danke,... woo Kuranyi out of Russia for a reclamation project if that's what Harry is looking for...

 

[SpurSince57]

nein danke,... woo Kuranyi out of Russia for a reclamation project if that's what Harry is looking for...

Kuranyi? The bloke who makes Berbatov look like Roy of the Rovers?

Stop messing about.

 

[SoulDog]

yes please. But heard this is not true???